Know Yourself, Be Yourself: The Third Chakra: You Are More Than Your Likes and Dislikes

As I’ve been exploring the Chakras during this month in the Ashaya Membership, I’m completely blown away at the depth and comprehensive nature of all of the chakras and in particular, the third Chakra, Manipura, “lustrous gem,” located at the level of the navel and solar plexus.

Manipura is all about creating a strong, unique, individual self; a self that recognizes its own likes and dislikes, and in that process, becomes able to differentiate between desires and consequences. Third chakra development is all about learning that desires have consequences, and that energy, personal power, and vitality require setting healthy self-boundaries.

In the 3rd Chakra we learn how to say “no” – no to our negative desires and no to others when we feel that our boundaries have been crossed.

From a developmental point of view, once we figure out how to survive in the first chakra, we enter the second chakra where we begin to move and explore our world. We begin crawling. Where are we going? We’re exploring whatever draws us. This is the beginning of having a desire. Once survival is handled, we have more energy freed up to welcome pleasure and to explore our desires. It’s only natural then to want to protect them.

During this vulnerable time of exploration, we may experience shame and judgment coming from society, parents, and siblings. Why? Because we are exploring our desires and our curiosities. These often include sensuality, sexuality, or taking chances for the thrill of it. [I remember at age 12, succumbing to peer pressure and jumping off a 40-foot high train trestle into a river, without really knowing how deep the water was. Miraculously no one got hurt.] 

Through our 3rd Chakra experiences, we learn how to protect our desires in order to sustain our pleasure and our power. In a very innocent way, we begin to fight for our desires. We grip and won’t let go. “That’s my bike.” “That last cookie is mine.” “I want that marble, and you can’t have it.” Here is where the ego, or sense of self, emerges and takes root.

In most classical schools of yoga and Buddhism, desire is unwelcome, a cause of suffering, something to suppress. But in Tantra (both Hindu and Buddhist Tantra) desire is not part of the problem. On the contrary, it’s the source of the solution because the universe desired to become you. Without desire, we wouldn’t be here. Desire prompts us to action, leading ultimately to freedom!

However, our desires alone can lead to a false sense of freedom.

The Tantra teaches us that freedom can only be truly achieved through boundaries.

When we create healthy boundaries, we experience more freedom. No boundaries, no freedom. Freedom herself has freely created freedom and boundary – YOU! We are beings who’ve been given the unique privilege of being able to experience both the boundary that we are and the free unbounded being that we also are. 

Yoga brings us to the place in the middle where boundary touches freedom, where our individual nature touches our universal nature. When we find the place in the middle between boundary and freedom, the 3rd Chakra awakens, and we come alive. We remember why we’re here, what we’re doing here, and who we are. 

I hope you’ll join me on the mat in the Ashaya Membership this month to explore your chakras and discover your freedom through setting healthy boundaries!

Namaste,

Todd

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